Just in time for the long weekend… LifeHacker’s collection of cool MacGyver Tips…
I ran into my local CompUSA to pick up some networking items for the holiday week, and who did I run into? None other than the jolly old elf himself, weaving up and down the video game aisles. I snapped this photo of Santa Claus picking up a few things for the good little boys and girls, shopping around for the best prices on holiday gifts. Either that or like many of us in our own homes, he’s also the North Pole’s IT support staff.
Moments after the photo was taken, I turned to complete my own retail transaction… and when I turned back around, he was gone. In lieu of a chimney, I assume he used the ventilation shaft just above.
Happy Holidays.
Tags: Friday Link, humour, Santa Claus, ChristmasIt’s still not to late… the US Postal Service will deliver Express Mail overnight!
The Office Online site has more tips on creating your own holiday and special occasion greeting cards…
“Holidays and special occasions are the perfect excuse for getting crafty and creating your own greeting cards. Microsoft Office Online can help you in this endeavor with our many templates and deep assortment of clip art.”
The holiday clip art alone is worth the visit to Office Online. (“Try the egg nog… I’ll be here all week…”)
If you’re more like our family, you are moving to a more digital option across the board. Once again, as we have in recent years, we will create an electronic version of our holiday cards (with pictures of the kids) and email them to people with accounts (hardcopy for those who are technologically challenged). The we take the money we would have sent on holiday cards and we donate it to charity.
Or you can just go elf yourself, and put your own face on a dancing elf. See http://www.elfyourself.com/
Update 12/31/2010: If you’re visiting here for the first time and interested in helping the less fortunate, please see this information on The Seattle Times Fund For The Needy.
“Since 1979, the Fund For The Needy has helped support some of the most vulnerable members of our community, including children, families and seniors. In three decades, generous readers of The Seattle Times have donated a total of more than $13.3 million, 100 percent of which goes directly to local agencies who address critical community needs. The Fund For The Needy helps fund 13 local nonprofit agencies specializing in preventative and remedial services for families and individuals at risk. Your
Back to the post. And Happy New Year. 😉
Here’s a Friday link a day early. The Seattle P-I newspaper has a slide show today on “Words of Thanks.”
“What are you most thankful for? P-I photographer Meryl Schenker profiles six local residents who have different reasons for giving thanks on this holiday.”
We’re thankful for many things, primarily for good health, family, and our community. And this Thanksgiving more than in the past, the kids are aware that the holidays are here.
But for them, it turns out that the holidays is about more than just toys.
Here’s an example: Our eldest son, Max, launched a project this summer using Office Live called Another Thousand Paintings, a series of companion paintings to Sala’s one thousand paintings of numbers. He decided that he wanted to create a series of paintings that are nicely painted on a stretched canvas (approx. 12 x 12 x 1.5″). Each is unique, paired to a single number from 1 to 1,000. The number and the demand define the price.
Max sees that we’re involved and supportive of local charities and organizations, not the least of which includes his school. So it wasn’t really a surprise when he said that he planned to donate half the profits from the sale of his paintings to charity, as he was interested in financing a new Zune purchase (then just the new thing). Max supports two local charities: he selected the Woodland Park Zoo and the Children’s Hospital, both in Seattle. And he soon (after some discussion;) decided that once he’d financed his new Zune, he’d put all future net profits (after expenses for canvases and paint, and donations) into his college fund. That’s good planning.
But along the way he realized that he could do more good to benefit others as he saw the emails come in and the requests for his paintings grow.
This became quite apparent during our company’s Giving Campaign in October. I put up one of his paintings as an auction item during the Giving Campaign auction, with all of the gross proceeds to go to charity. Max is just enthusiastic that people are interested in donating to charities they support as well as his art. I was surprised when several people bid on it and finally closed at $75. Cool: with matching, that’s $150 for the United Way.
Here’s the interesting part: Max mentioned after the auction closed that if people who had bid unsuccessfully on his paintings still wanted one, he would be happy to create one for them. In return, Max asked that a donation be made (in the amount of their highest bid in the auction) to either one of teh charities he supports or the giver’s favourite charity before the end of the calendar year. Turned out that just about everyone was interested and took Max up on the offer, turning his one auction item donation into several and more than quadrupling the donations to charities.
Sometimes Max is quite a challenge, but more often he shows just how big a heart he has.
You may think that writing out what you’re thankful is quite corny. As important as my work is to me, my family is at the top of the list. So this Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for for many things, but most of all I’m grateful that some of the things we hope gets through to our kids actually sinks in.
No matter what you do, who you are or which OS, services or applications you use, be thoughtful and think about what makes you thankful. Happy Thanksgiving, and have a good long weekend.
Jack Palance passed away, and that is a real passing on many levels.
Briefly, I’ll mention one anedote that I recall more often to people, one item that I think mention most often.
Yes, it’s the “one thing” from City Slickers. OK, sounds trivial, but stick with me for a second. In the movie, Mr. Palance’s character mentions that there is “One Thing” that really matters in life. It starts with Palance asking Billy Crystal, “Do you know what the secret to life is?”
“No, what?”
Palance answers: “One thing, just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean sh*#.”
Crystal looks puzzled and asks, “That’s great, but what’s the one thing?”
“That’s what you’ve got to figure out.”
That one thing for each of us is to find out is that thing that drives us, our passion. That singular focus is really important, and it’s something that I often see in so many people in our industry, people involved in work outside their office (with our family, kid’s school, charities and friends).
I saw it this week walking through building 26, as we closed on Vista RTM. I saw it in people in the buildings where much of the Office team works last week. I saw it in the Xbox and Zune teams this week as we near the holidays. It’s all over… in MSN/Live, MBS, SQL, Longhorn Server, MS hardware (ooh, I want one of those new mice), online services and devices (I love my jasjar and my wife should enjoy the new Dash). It’s everywhere. I saw it this week with a new bunch of employees going through orientation (our “MS101” program which is so well done), new employees that were excited to be at our company to make a difference.
People are truly passionate about their work and that in itself is exciting. They’re truly interested in getting our products into the hands of customers and partners, to get their feedback and work on improving the products. They’re focused on making sure that we have the most satisfied customers out there. Over the next year we’ll release an incredible number of products, and it is really an exciting time to be not only here at a company that is driving so many different products, but also being one of the consumers at home and at our office (as we eat our own dogfood) looking forward to the new innovations and releases. I know that it won’t be all smooth sailing – we anticipate that there will be both satisfied and… well.. less than satisfied customers. But from what I’ve seen and experienced so far, the products are solid and the new things slated in the months to come are really exciting.
For me, the “one thing” at work is to make sure our product teams have what they need in their effort and focus on improving the customer and partner experience across the board. I work hard on my “one thing” focus at home on my family and friends. Figure that out the “one thing” for yourself and do it.
Have a good weekend.
